Congress MP Uttam Reddy seeks postponement of Parliament's Ethics panel meeting on Mahua Moitra

Hyderabad: Nalgonda MP and member of the Parliamentary Committee on Ethics Uttam Kumar Reddy has written to the Chairman of the panel, Vinod Kumar Sonkar, requesting him to postpone Thursday's meeting on the cash-for-query allegations against TMC MP Mahua Moitra.

According to a notice from the Lok Sabha secretariat, the meeting, which is to consider and adopt its draft report on the allegations against Moitra, was already postponed to November 9 from November 7. As Uttam Reddy is to file his nomination for the Telangana poll on November 9, he has sought a further change in the date. “I had received a communication that the Ethics committee meeting on Smt Mahua Moitra issue for consideration/adoption of report would be held on 07th November.

Then suddenly and inexplicably the date is changed to 09th November," Reddy said in his letter. "As I am filing nomination for Telangana Assembly elections on 09th November, I request you to kindly postpone the meeting to any other date," Speaking to PTI, the Congress MP said there seems to be an effort to target the TMC MP West Bengal possibly because she has been a harsh critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has questioned his alleged links with businessman Gautam Adani. “Somebody at a very high position in the government is targeting her. They scheduled the meeting on (November) 7th and I confirmed my attendance.

(But) in the last minute they changed it (to November) 9th," he said. "I am filling the nomination on 9th, so I will not be able to attend the next meeting,” he explained. BJP MP Nishikant Dubey has accused Moitra of asking questions in the Lok Sabha to target the Adani Group at the behest of businessman Darshan Hiranandani, in exchange for alleged bribes. He said it was Hiranandani who used her login to file questions from different places, mostly Dubai. Moitra has admitted that his office used her login details but has rejected any pecuniary considerations, asserting that most MPs share their login credentials with others to use their secretarial services.